Yooka-Laylee Trailer Shows Off Multiplayer Gameplay

Playtonic Games releases a new trailer for the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee that shows off some of the game’s multiplayer gameplay.

Yooka-Laylee is a love letter to Banjo-Kazooie. Serving as a spiritual successor to Rare’s bear-and-bird franchise, Yooka-Laylee is retaining many elements from that series, including a dynamic animal duo, collect-a-thon gameplay, and a sharp sense of humor. Yooka-Laylee will also be borrowing elements from later Banjo-Kazooie games, as we’ve now learned it will support local multiplayer.

In Yooka-Laylee, players will be able to access an arcade ran by Rextro Sixtyforus – a dinosaur with a passion for retro video games. Rextro’s passion for gaming has seen him develop his own video games, which are the eight multiplayer mini-games gamers can play in his arcade. Rextro’s mini-games support up to four-player local multiplayer, though it’s also possible to play solo and shoot for the high score.

While not explicitly stated in the trailer, the multiplayer mini-games in Yooka-Laylee may have to be unlocked. When the character was first revealed, Playtonic indicated that Rextro would be guarding a playable arcade machine hidden in each level, but the new trailer shows the machines gathered in a single arcade room. Perhaps players have to find the machines in each level to have them delivered to the arcade room for easier access, or maybe Rextro has other challenges players have to complete before being able to play the arcade mini-games.

It also remains to be seen if any of these multiplayer games support online multiplayer. Based on the trailer, it seems like the multiplayer in Yooka-Laylee will be a strictly local experience, which may disappoint some, but also helps it remain true to its roots. With Yooka-Laylee, Playtonic Games is trying to capture the feel of Nintendo 64-era video games, which will be easier to accomplish if its game doesn’t have online multiplayer. On the other hand, online multiplayer could have made the multiplayer mini-games more valuable, especially to gamers that only play with their friends online.

With or without online multiplayer, though, fans should be able to expect an experience that pays homage to Banjo-Kazooie while also breaking new ground at the same time. Yooka-Laylee looks to be adding plenty of new bells and whistles to the standard Banjo-Kazooie formula, and that sense of newness combined with the security of having former Rare developers on the staff could be a winning formula. Fans have to wait until April to see if Playtonic is able to achieve its goal of recreating the magic of Banjo-Kazooie, but there should be more trailers and reveals between now and its release date to make the wait less painful.

Yooka-Laylee will be available on April 11th for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.